Cast alloy wheels have been in use on automobiles designed for road use and other vehicles designed for off-road for many years. Cast alloys such as, for example, aluminum, magnesium and titanium have provided desirable appearance while also providing reduced mass over older steel wheels that include hubcaps for providing desirable appearance. Ever increasing fuel efficiency standards have put pressure on vehicle manufacturers to continuously reduce mass, even on vehicle components already providing low mass features, such as, for example, alloy wheels. It is believed that reducing mass of a wheel is more beneficial than reducing mass of other vehicle components because the energy required to rotate a wheel with a disadvantageous moment of inertia.
Some efforts have been made to reduce the mass of a vehicle wheel by forming all or part of the wheel from composite materials. Forming an entire wheel from a composite has proven too expensive for mass production given the complexity of forming spokes and lug portions of the wheel. Other efforts have been made to form the face of a wheel from an alloy and the rim of the wheel from a composite material. Joining the alloy to the composite has not proven viable for a commercial application because fastener and complex joining features have been employed, none of which are viable.
Therefore, it would be desirable to develop a wheel that makes use of light weight alloys in combination with the best features of composite materials that is technically and economically viable for commercial use.